On a fine spring morning in 1944, seven weeks before D-Day, a lone German Junkers 188 twin-engined bomber emerged from the clouds over the Isle of Wight. It circled low over the northern part of the island and somehow managed to withstand a barrage of anti-aircraft fire before flying across the Solent to the Hampshire coast, where it fell victim to an attack by two RAF Typhoons and to further anti-aircraft fire. The bomber crash-landed in a field close to Exbury House which, at this time, was the home of HMS Mastodon, a naval headquarters closely involved in preparations for the Normandy landings. None of the men on board the Junkers Ju188 survived.